EYE PENCIL: When Pencil Met Gel- "Forest Green Shimmer" [only available in "The Eyes Have It" set for $40 > you might however be able to find this ind. somewhere else for around $14].

TOTE BAG: Canvas "Fun Looks Good..." Tote Bag $?

THE VERDICT:

For starters, there's the pricing- it's actually fairly decent this time around with a grand total of about $106.00 if you were to normally purchase these items individually. However, when you snag up these items in one of Julep's Mystery Boxes like I did with this one- you usually get a pretty good deal as you only pay around $30 for it :0 The downside to this though is that if you already had some of these nail colors for example, you aren't really getting much of a deal and just more duplicates :/ I'm a bit torn on this month's Mystery Box as I did end up with some of those duplicate colors.

I was really excited about the new color that hasn't been released yet and was only available if you snagged January's Mystery Box. There were 3 separate options that each included the "Andie" nail color and a cute tote bag with a different saying on each bag. I chose to go with the "Fun Looks Good On Every One"- Brave Pretty canvas tote with a peach and pastel blue color scheme and dark teal handles.

Unfortunately for me, I had ALL of the additional polishes that were provided :/ Two of them were in past Julep Maven boxes and the other 2 colors were sent in a previous Mystery Box. If you are a regular Maven like myself, this might have ended up being quite a miss for you as you would have ended up with 4 polish colors you already had.

This means that you will have gotten 1 color ["Andie"] and possibly 1 lip color and eye pencil you didn't have if you haven't ordered these items previously in Maven boxes or on their own from the Julep store. Although I was initially excited when this box arrived, my energy quickly dissipated when I realized most of the items provided were "dupes".

If you take away the duplicates I received, you end up with only about a $50 total in products that I didn't have and that leaves me with only around a $10 savings :( I was hoping for a bit more- especially considering how often I purchase their products and have been a Maven.

It should be noted though that the nature of Mystery Boxes means that you don't know what you will end up with and there might be duplicates as Julep warns. But, this Mystery Box in particular seemed to included quite a few colors and things that Julep wanted to get rid of more than some great products they wanted to share with their dedicated Julep Mavens :/

When looking at the products that I got in the Mystery Box that weren't things I snagged up before, I wasn't a big fan of the lip color- it's a beautiful red color but a little too bright for my tastes. I have very fair skin and reds are something that I'm terribly picky about and this is the reason why- they often don't work out and I usually try these on in-store so I can find the right shade of red that doesn't cause me to look like a clown [lol!].

Although this shade of lip stick wasn't right for me, it would be a good color for most skin tones and others might have quite the opposite experience as myself. The new nail color was probably my entire fav item of the Mystery Box. This unique and limited edition color is a fun colorful microglitter with a variety of shapes and sizes of glitter too.

It's great to wear all on it's own- I got a great effect with 2 good coats and then a clear top-coat. You can also wear this shade over a bright or darker shade for an even neater effect. The eye pencil was a close second and a nice little surprise as most of the pencils I've snagged from Julep in the past weren't near as pretty and striking.

With a beautiful pearlescent green color, the eye pencil can really make your eyes pop! It blends & smudges well; you will want to blend it in immediately following application since the gel glider will "lock in" once applied- it takes about a minute for this to occur for me. As for the canvas tote bag, I decided to use it for school in my final semester since it's decently made and has a well-designed pocket inside for extra storage.

All in all, there were a couple of nice items that I received that I really liked but this month's Mystery Box was a little lacking. I still love Julep and I will be continue to be a Maven, but I have hopes that things will turn around with my up-coming February Maven Box. They will be shipped out shortly and it should be arriving within a couple of weeks...I will make sure to give all of you the lowdown as soon as it does!